Two major human-rights groups issued reports lambasting Greece and Bulgaria Tuesday, making the serious accusation that border authorities in the two countries push refugees back over their respective borders with Turkey –an illegal practice.

The European Commission, the European Union executive arm, said in an email that it was concerned by the findings and was in contact with Bulgarian and Greek authorities about the issue. The commission can start legal proceedings against the countries if it feels there is evidence to show they are in breach of EU legislation.

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The two EU member states lie at the bloc’s external borders with Turkey and have been key gateways for refugees and migrants, although in recent months a crackdown by border guards there has led to fewer arrivals. More migrants and refugees are now arriving to the EU in Italy via Libya. Greece and Bulgaria receive EU funding to help them guard their borders and to build and run decent facilities for migrants who await asylum decisions or are due to be deported back to their home nations.

Both reports cite numerous migrant testimonies describing beatings by border guards and being repelled back into Turkey. The practice, known as a “pushback,” is illegal under European Union, domestic and international law.

Laws preventing national authorities from pushing undocumented migrants out of the EU without registering them are intended to give them a fair chance to seek asylum in the EU.

In addition, as the Amnesty report explains, “Pushbacks can also result in the return of individuals to countries where they would be at risk of serious human rights violations, whether directly, or via a third country. This practice is known as refoulement and is also prohibited under EU and international law.”

Human Rights Watch says an Afghan man who had tried to get into Bulgaria and was interviewed in Turkey told its researchers:

They drove us for about 30 to 45 minutes and took us out of the car and again, one of the soldiers started beating me with his stick all over except for my head, but particularly my chest. We were walking at this point so while we were walking he kept hitting me with his stick. The walk was about 200 meters and I was beaten all the way. When we reached the border, the soldier showed the direction to Turkey,

Amnesty says two Syrian refugee women who had been trying to flee to Greece unsuccessfully told them in Turkey:

The police ordered us out of the vans, they were swearing at us and pushing… They handed us over to people wearing black hoods and black or dark blue uniforms. They [the men in hoods] took our money and passports. Then, in groups, took us in small boats over to the Turkish side with nothing but our clothes left on us.

Human Rights Watch interviewed 177 migrants in Bulgaria and Turkey over two weeks in December 2013 and one week in January 2014.

In the report, its researchers say the testimonies of pushbacks are sufficient to point to a widespread and systematic practice by the Bulgarian border authorities; they point out the timing of the alleged pushbacks chimes with the announcement by the Bulgarian government of a new “containment plan” to limit the number of migrants arriving there from Turkey. In the course of last year 11,000 Syrian refugees made it to Bulgaria, and the report also elaborates on the detention conditions they face there.

Amnesty conducted 67 interviews with migrants in Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey between March 2013 and April 2014. They say more than half of the interviewees made “convincing allegations of being pushed back at least once.” They say their evidence points to a practice that’s common if not systematic.

The organization called on the EU to prosecute Greece through the so-called infringement procedure, a legal avenue the European Commission has to refer member states to the European Court of Justice for violations of EU legislation. It also calls on Frontex, the EU border agency that co-patrols parts of the Greek borders alongside the local authorities, to pull out of Greece until the country shows it is seriously tackling the widespread practice of pushbacks”.

Responding to both reports, the commission said in an email that it is “aware and concerned” about the situation of migrants in Bulgaria and Greece and called the findings in the two separate reports “particularly worrying.”

“Member States must ensure full respect of fundamental rights of the migrants concerned, and in particular of the principle of non-refoulement,” it added and said it was in touch with the Bulgarian and Greek authorities over the issue.

The commission added that it was prepared to exercise its duties as “guardian of the [EU] treaty” –formal language for a threat to put the countries in infringement proceedings if the situation isn’t rectified.

Greek and Bulgarian authorities maintain that pushbacks are not a systematic or widespread policy among their border guards and say such incidents are few and isolated.

Two Wall Street Journal on-the-ground investigations in Greece and Bulgaria last year shed light on the systematic detention of Syrian refugees in poor conditions and with limited access to a proper asylum-application process.

Comments (5 of 5)

A mother of whom most of her children drowned when her boat capsized said she was going with people smugglers because she had heard Sweden was granting Syrians refugee status.Making Sweden responsible for the deaths of these children.We should put the blame where it belongs not on Bulgaria and Greece.But irresponsible EU member states like Sweden dangling carrots and making desperate people risk life and limb.

2:39 pm May 6, 2014

Roland wrote:

It is mostly EU member states saying they will grant asylum to anyone who gets there from Syria (Sweden et al) that cause these migration flows and the subsequent deaths.If member states want to take in refugees from Syria go and pick them up do not make them cross the med or go with people smugglers across Europe.It is like dangling a carrot infront of starving people on the other side of a cliff and then getting upset if they jump and die.

6:08 am May 1, 2014

Me wrote:

The two countries mentioned are struggling with more than enough economic and social problems already. Bulgaria needs assistance and pressure to get it's roma population integrated . The romas needs pressure too, something the one-eyed HR organiations tends to forget. The culprit is surely Turkey , if this is the truth about how syrian refugees in Tyrkey are treated then pressure, but also help to foot the bill should be directed at Turkeyy. Sweden is a good example of how naive but well-meaning immigration policies has transformed a once peaceful country into one where ethnic swedes have to live with no go areas.http://www.change-ip-address.com/?gclid=COy_1c62ib4CFYoLcwodVIoASQ
That we need to protect people under threath, isn't the same as that everyone should be forced into receive whoever arrives at their borders and claim to be so. First station should be in camps, where the claim and identification is verified. As it is now, asylum seekers are overrepresented in crime stats in many countries as real cases are mixed with others for less legitimate reasons. Also what we see with todays policies is that it's the one's with resources, who get asylum in rich countries,, whereas those w more need of being in places w better healtcare or social services are left to fend for themselves.

About Real Time Brussels

The Wall Street Journal’s Brussels blog is produced by the Brussels bureau of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. The bureau has been headed since 2009 by Stephen Fidler, who was previously a correspondent and editor for the Financial Times and Reuters. Also posting regularly: Matthew Dalton, Viktoria Dendrinou, Tom Fairless, Naftali Bendavid, Laurence Norman, Gabriele Steinhauser and Valentina Pop.